Flight 718

In The Transformation - Flight 718 crashed near Scarsdale, NY after a passenger associated with "The Pattern" transformed into a 'man-beast' and attacked those aboard - causing the crash.

About

Shortly after getting underway, VertusAir Flight 718 passenger Marshall Bowman, while writing concerned comments in his notebook, starts to bleed significantly from his nose. The polite lady next to him offered some folksy advice, but Bowman had bigger concerns... he knew something terrible had been inflicted upon him - he needed help from the crew and fellow passengers to avert disaster.

After making his way to the lavatory to check his DNA (and teeth), Bowman found a flight attendant to implore the crew to gather needed drugs from other passengers, and weapons, to isolate him in the lavatory. The cabin crew contacted the cockpit crew with the problem. With only a Taser to defend the aircraft, Bowman retreated to the rear lavatory and transformed into a hideous creature. After a brief calm, he (it) blasted through the door and eventually caused the aircraft to crash just after 6 PM. according to eyewitness testimony.

Among the wreckage, the monstrous corpse was discovered - charred, but relatively intact. The science team was called to the crash site that normally would have been inspected by the NTSB. Later, in the situation room at the Federal Building, the radio tapes from New York Center and Tower provided a remarkable account of the incident by the Flight 718 cockpit crew.

The crash of VertusAir Flight 718 took 147 lives - the same as Flight 627 in Pilot. Possibly "... honoring victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks ... dedicated at Boston's Logan International Airport in the eastern state of Massachusetts.
The airport was where 147 passengers and crew members departed on two flights, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, that hijackers crashed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.... http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2008-09-09-voa48-66685927.html."

Storyline Analysis

The destination and origin of Flight 718 was not disclosed, but the fact that they were just handing out headsets suggests that the flight was airborne for about an hour, or less, and that the flight was long enough to warrant an inflight movie. A westbound flight would land at the nearest location and not attempt to take "forty" minutes to return to the New York metropolitan area. On the other hand, an eastbound flight would likely return to its' point of departure if it were trans-Atlantic, and the flight would have been long enough to warrant an inflight movie. Marshall Bowman managed corporate accounts in Europe and may have been returning to France.

Marshall Bowman managed corporate accounts in Europe. He was likely returning to Europe when he transformed - suggesting he was infected (attacked) while he was still in the U.S.